Primary
elections set to widen fissures

POLITICAL parties should gear up for more internal
fissures as they hold primaries to select candidates in preparation for
polls in 2013 and possible by-elections in 38 vacant seats soon, analysts
have warned.

They said although primary elections were meant to show
a culture of internal democracy, which should replicate nationally,
questions were increasingly being asked as to whether they are the best way
to select candidates.

In the past, primaries have caused
serious divisions, with the process being manipulated, meaning that it is
not always the best candidate who wins.Even President Robert Mugabe a few
months ago admitted that imposition of candidates and squabbles,
particularly in Manicaland, cost Zanu PF 20 out of the 26 contested seats in
the province during the 2008 elections.

Political commentator,
Blessing Vava said although primary elections might be a good way of
selecting candidates, the country had witnessed primaries being abused,
especially by those with money who engaged in vote buying.

He said
there should be other ways of identifying the most popular candidates
without necessarily going for primary elections which have been won of
unpopular candidates.“Free and fair ground rules need to be clearly laid out
on the conduct of primary elections, to make sure that those with resources
or power will not abuse and buy the electorate,” Vava said.

He
said divisions and squabbles, particularly in Zanu PF and MDC-T, were likely
to worsen with primary elections, considering the factionalism that was
currently tearing apart the two parties.

Innocent Kasiyano of the
Election Resource Centre said although primary elections were meant to
establish party representatives and avert a crisis of multiple candidates,
the reality was that many of those barred and losers subsequently fielded
themselves without the blessing of their parties.

“The result is
either double or multiple fielding of candidates by a single political
party,” he said. “In this regard, primary elections have failed to unite
party supporters; instead they have created multiple headaches to an extent
that if it is not dealt with, parties can split.”

Kasiyano said the
2008 harmonised elections proved a thorn in the flesh of the three main
political parties in the country when it came to concluding their candidate
selection process, with the MDC-T being the worst hit.

The party lost
a number of seats in Midlands province after the late senator Patrick
Kombayi sponsored parallel candidates in a number of
constituencies.

“Subsequently, the failure of internal democracy and
its pillars precipitated into parties fielding what was referred to as
parallel candidates in the same constituency. This in some instances
prejudices the party fielding two or more candidates through splitting of
the vote,” said Kasiyano.

He said the imposition of candidates,
usually at the behest of top leadership, had resulted in the masses even
demonstrating against such practices.“At times their cries land on deaf
ears as the imposed candidates proceed to contest the respective elections,”
said Kasiyano.

Primary elections divisive but still relevant,
says Hamauswa

University of Zimbabwe political science lecturer,
Shakespeare Hamauswa, said although primary elections were divisive, parties
rallied behind the selected candidate when it was time for
elections.

“Supporters of a losing candidate are usually whipped into
line as they are told to look at the bigger picture and rally behind the
winner, even if he or she was imposed on them,” he said.

Hamauswa
said technocrats may fall by the wayside during the primary elections as
they usually found it difficult to get elected compared to career
politicians who could win through unorthodox means, including violence and
throwing mud at opponents.

“If the technocrats are already in
government, they will be judged by their previous performance, but it is the
new contenders who may find the going tough because the electorate may not
know them, even if they are potentially good performers,” he said.

Police
worst abusers of prostitutes — Survey

BULAWAYO — Zimbabwe police are the worst
abusers of prostitutes, a recent survey covering six nations on how policing
practices against sex workers impact on HIV prevalence has
shown.

The survey, conducted by the UK-based Open Society Foundation,
was released last week and covered Zimbabwe, South Africa, Russia, Namibia,
United States and Kenya.

The survey says the police rank
top in terms of “harassing and abusing physically sex
workers”.

“These actions have dire consequences for sex workers’
health and their clients,” the 36-page report titled Publication of the
Sexual Health and Rights Project of the Open Society Foundations
reads.

Local police ranked top as 85% of the prostitutes surveyed
confirmed to have been physically and sexually abused by the law enforcement
agents. South Africa and Russia stood at 80%, United States at 52% while
Namibia and Kenya both recorded 50%.

The report coincided with
last week’s march by women activists, vendors and sex workers in Harare
protesting police harassment. The protesters accused police of making
arbitrary arrests on women walking in the streets at night on suspicion of
loitering or soliciting for prostitution.

The police were accused of
demanding bribes and sex in exchange for freedom.

Women’s rights
campaigner, Tsitsi Dangarembgwa, said they would submit a petition to Home
Affairs co-minister Theresa Makone calling for an immediate end to arbitrary
arrests of women suspected of engaging in sex work.

Harare provincial
police spokesman, Chief Inspector James Sabau last week said that unless
prostitution was legalised, arrests of the women would
continue.

The Open Society Foundation report said police used
condom possession and suspicion of being a prostitute to justify detaining
or arresting women on charges related to prostitution.

“Police
harass and abuse sex workers and use the threat of arrest to extort and
exploit them,” says the report. “Some sex workers opt not to carry condoms
because they fear police harassment and detention, thus increasing their
risk of exposure to HIV and compromising their health and the health of
their sexual partners.”

The report recommended that “lawmakers should
pass legislation decriminalising sex work and removing administrative
sanctions on sex work.

“As a first step, justice officials or
representatives from other responsible government agencies should present to
legislators a draft law on decriminalisation of sex work, with accompanying
explanation about the role of decriminalisation in reducing the spread of
HIV, violence, and other health risks,” the report advises.

should
prostitution be legalised?

Bulawayo legislator, Tabitha
Khumalo has already come out in the open in support of legalising
prostitution.Khumalo has threatened to expose colleagues using the services
of prostitutes if her campaign is not supported in Parliament.

Mbare
hostels occupants must be vetted — HRT

BY CHARLES MAZORODZETHE current occupants of Mbare hostels must
be vetted before the flats are demolished to determine the rightful owners
as some landlords were evicted from their properties by Zanu PF youth
militia for political reasons, the Harare Residents Trust (HRT) has
said.Several suspected MDC-T members were evicted from their homes in Mbare
during the violent 2008 elections by the Zanu PF militia group, Chipangano,
to make way for supporters of the former ruling party.

“Our
demand is that the council thoroughly vets the occupants in those flats and
determine whether they are the legal occupants or if they are illegals who
evicted the legal tenants using their political muscle,” said HRT in a
statement.

“Once they have a comprehensive and legitimate list of
tenants, then they must check with the waiting list to ensure that they also
benefit from land designated for that purpose of accommodating those to be
displaced by such a costly exercise.”

The hostels targeted for
demolition include Nenyere, Matapi, Shawasha, Mbare and Matererini, where at
least three families share one room, making it possible unfor 21 people to
stay in each room.

The residents trust said, without vetting, the
Minister of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development, Ignatius Chombo
could push the council to undertake an exercise that would only benefit
certain political actors, and not genuinely address a housing
crisis.

The trust said there were no concrete plans from either the
Local Government ministry or the City of Harare to suggest that they have
intentions, in the short-to-medium term, to refurbish the
flats.

Chombo recently said the hostels would be demolished to enable
the construction of modern accommodation as the flats had outlived their
purpose of housing single black migrant labourers during the colonial
era.

But Harare Mayor Mucha-deyi Masunda differed with Chombo saying
they must revert to single occupancy.

More than 56 000 people,
mostly the poor, live in the apartments, implying that if they are reserved
for singles, only 5 697 people would be accommodated.

The HRT has
urged the Harare City Council and the government to put concrete modalities
in place to accommodate the inhabitants when the decongestion and
refurbishment exercise is eventually done.

The government has a
history of evicting vulnerable residents from their dwellings since 1990 to
2005 as depicted by the evictions at the Porta Farm, Churu and Operation
Murambatsina, which left thousands of people ho-meless.

“The HRT
considers the situation as more delicate than the mere movement of people,”
said the trust in a statement.

“It requires the council’s Housing and
Community Services Department, the Department of Urban Planning Services and
the Finance and Development Committee, and also the Environment Management
Committee, to carry out detailed feasibility studies that assess the social,
political and economic impact of the intended move.”

Women
sell ‘little chicken’ for survival

BY
PROBLEM MASAUCHIPINGE — They might be a nuisance to small grain farmers but
quelea birds are a delicacy and have become a source of livelihood to many
villagers in Chipinge and Chimanimani districts.

Many villagers
harvest the birds for sale to make ends meet in the drought-stricken areas
of the Lowveld, where farmers complain that the birds are devouring huge
quantities of their ripe crops.

At Tanganda junction,
Chakohwa bus terminus, Wengezi and Birchenough Bridge Growth Point, scores
of people, mostly women, jostle for customers selling the “little chicken”,
which are popular with most beer drinkers.

Olivia Muyambo is one such
vendor making a living from selling the grain-eating birds, which move
around in millions.

She said the birds, popularly known as ngozha,
have changed her fortunes since the time she ventured into the business a
few years back.“We use nets to catch large quantities of birds and in some
instances we catch more than 500 birds to sell at the shops at Tanganda
Halt,” said Olivia Muyambo, a vendor. “I get more than US$15 a day, which is
quite a substantial amount of money here.”

Every evening Muyambo
joins the great trek to Gunura village, over five kilometres away, where the
birds are trapped using wide nets and glue (urimbo) and sold to
vendors.

Some of the birds are trapped along Save River during the
night.

“After buying the birds, women then roast them in hot cooking
oil and pack 10 in each packet to sell to patrons in local beer halls and
travellers,” said another vendor, Grace Sithole.

On average, each
pack comprising 10 quelea birds costs US$1.

“I tasted the delicious
birds while we were on a bus and from that day I have never stopped picking
a packet each time I pass through Tanganda,” said Arnold Mazodze from
Chipinge town.

A local councillor, Hardwork Masaiti said quelea birds
had proved to be a “blessing in disguise” to the impoverished rural
women.

“This is an arid region and selling the birds has proved to be
an income generating project for most women,” he said. “Some are able to
send their children to school from the money they get from selling the
birds.”

Godknows Hangari, a senior agricultural consultant said
farmers had been trying to control the birds using pests for decades without
success. They have also used poisonous spray, which also proved fruitless as
the birds reproduce rapidly.

“If people could get income from the
troublesome birds, the better. They should turn their activities into a
commercial scale, I am sure markets are there throughout the country because
of the birds’ delicacy,” he said.

Quelea birds are
destructive

For several years, the birds have wreaked havoc in
the Lowveld and other areas countrywide where they consume huge quantities
of small grains such as sorghum, wheat and millet.

Agric
vet services official jailed for theft

BY SILAS NKALABULAWAYO — An employee with the Ministry of
Agriculture, Veterinary Field Services Department here was recently slapped
with a five-month jail term for stealing about US$3 973 from the
ministry.

Fredrick Tafadzwa Chivige (25) of Northend in Bulawayo
pleaded guilty to theft charges when he appeared before Bulawayo magistrate
Tawanda Muchemwa.The magistrate sentenced him to 19 months in
jail.

Four months were suspended for five years on good
behavior. A further 10 months were suspended on condition that he restitutes
the ministry the sum of US$3 266 which he stole.

The court heard
that between July 26 and October 6 2010, Tafadzwa was employed by the
Ministry of Agriculture, Veterinary Services Department as an accountant
based in Bulawayo provincial offices at Steeldale Road.

He received
various amounts of money totalling US$3 266 on behalf of the
ministry.

Instead of banking all the money, he only banked part
of it and converted the rest to his personal use.

Trying to cover
up the theft, he altered figures on the deposit slip.

An internal
audit conducted established that about US$3 973 could not be accounted for.
A report was made to the police leading to the arrest of Chivige.The
money has not been recovered.

Zimplats
drills boreholes for community

PLATINUM mining giant, Zimplats, has so far drilled 32
boreholes in the Mhondoro-Ngezi and Chegutu districts, which are set to
benefit 4 000 families as part of the company’s social responsibility
programme.

Six other boreholes are expected to be sunk before the end
of the year to improve water, sanitation and hygiene (Wash) in the
areas.

Speaking at a ceremony to handover the boreholes
recently, Zimplats Chief Operating Officer, Stanley Segula said the drilling
of the boreholes was made possible because they have developed an effective
Private-Public Partnership programme.

He said Zimplats, a member
of the South African Impala Group of Companies, provided the materials while
the District Development Fund (DDF) chipped in with the technical support to
drill the boreholes.

“We will continue working with DDF to ensure
that boreholes are maintained and that the community is trained on their
usage,” said Segula. “We hope that by the end of the year, we would have
drilled another six boreholes.”

He added: “We have spent US$2 million
on infrastructural development in this community as part of our corporate
social responsibility so we can address the needs of the
community.”

Before the boreholes were drilled, the villagers used to
walk several kilometres to fetch water from unsafe
sources.

Zimbabwe’s water supply and sanitation services have
suffered a major collapse in both rural and urban areas due to years of
under-investment.

Although some progress has been made in
rehabilitating water infrastructure in urban areas, rural populations
continue to bear the brunt of poor water and sanitation in the
country.

Zimplats’ main focus

Zimplats’ community
investment programme mainly focuses on the areas of health, education and
infrastructural development.

Maid
jailed for kidnapping employer’s child

BULAWAYO - A 26-year-old woman was last week
slapped with a 12-months jail term for kidnapping her employer’s
three-year-old child.

The maid detained her at a house in Nkulumane
suburb for 13 days.

Sifiso Dube of Pumula North in Bulawayo
pleaded guilty to kidnapping charges when she appeared before Western
Commonage court magistrate, Richard Ramaboea last week.

Ramaboea
convicted and sentenced Dube to 18 months in jail.

Six months were
suspended for five years on condition of good behaviour.

The court
heard that Dube was employed as a maid by Talent Moyo (52), a teacher at
Pumula East Pre-school. On June 15 this year, Dube took the three-year-old
girl without Moyo’s consent.

She went with the child to Nkulumane at
house number 431, where she detained the child for 3 days.Moyo made a
report to the police. A follow up to the house by the police led to the
arrest of Dube and recovery of the child.

Swimming
pool only a temporary School

BY OUR
STAFFA swimming pool complex that is being used as a school for
disadvantaged children in Arcadia is only a temporary home, says Graham
Stewart, the board chairman.

He said there were community-driven
initiatives for the return of the Early Learning Centre to the residents of
Arcadia, which is currently occupied as accommodation by City of Harare
workers.

Stewart allayed fears that the pool where pupils
were learning may pose a danger to the schoolchildren.

“The water
in the pool is as a result of the last rains and poses no direct risk to the
children who are always supervised. There have been no pool- related
incidents during the eight months we have been there,” he said.

“We
currently have 22 children drawn from the suburbs of ward 2 but we are
limited by resources to assist more children even though there is a greater
need. Progress with their studies has not only been encouraging but also
quite gratifying.”

He said although children came from difficult
backgrounds, they had all been properly brought up.

He thanked
the support of well-wishers, donors and a dedicated team of “teachers” and
trustees who have been invaluable to their success.“So while a lot of
progress has been made, there still remains much to do and so we would like
to invite any interested persons to contact us, with a view to partnering in
this noble cause.”

Govt
okays total control of diamond mines: Biti

BY NDAMU SANDUGOVERNMENT plans to enforce a 100% ownership of
diamonds, among a raft of measures designed to leverage on the country’s
mining sector.

The move is set to plug leakages and ensure that the
country benefits from its natural resources. The move is likely to set
government on a collision course with investors already operating in the
diamond industry.

In his mid-term fiscal policy review on
Wednesday, Finance minister, Tendai Biti, said government had approved a
diamond policy to enforce government’s 100% ownership of
diamonds.

Biti said government had also approved the enactment of the
Diamond Exploration Act that issues a directive to prohibit the exportation
of unpolished or uncut diamonds.

He said there would be immediate
separation of diamond mining from marketing.

The Finance minister
added that the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) would be placed in the
entire value chain, from diamond mining to marketing.“In the Finance Bill,
we propose to amend the Revenue Act to ensure Zimra is connected to the
entire value chain, not only diamonds but other minerals,” Biti
said.

Clause 10 of the Finance bill gazetted on Friday states that
Zimra officers, authorised by the Commissioner General can at anytime enter
any mining location in Zimbabwe to inspect such location and examine
prospecting or mining operations.

Officers can examine and make
copies of or take extracts from books, accounts, vouchers and documents,
among others.

Officers can also examine security systems at mining
locations.

Officers can secure that any royalties or taxes payable in
relation to the minerals mined in question are paid and
collected.

Any person who bars officers from carrying out their
duties would be guilty of an offence and would pay a fine or face
imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months.

In the six
months to June, revenue from diamonds contributed US$41,6
million.

Diamonds, particularly those from Marange fields, have
been the source of bickering in the inclusive government.

Biti
said Treasury had not been getting enough and accused Anjin of not remitting
anything to the fiscus.

Anjin — a company in which Chinese are
partnering soldiers — hit back in May saying that it had remitted US$30
million to Treasury. Four companies — Anjin, Mbada, Marange Resources and
Diamond Mining Corporation (DMC) — are mining in Marange.

Marange
Resources is wholly owned by government.

The Zimbabwe Mining
Development Corporation (ZMDC) has 50% in Mbada and is partnering Pure Diam
of Dubai in DMC.The reforms, if implemented, would be victory for civil
society organisations and Biti, who have been accusing some individuals of
benefiting at the expense of the country.

Mines ministry unaware of
Biti’s claim: Mupazviriho

However, Prince Mupazviriho, Mines and
Mining Development permanent secretary, said on Friday as the custodians of
the mining policy, the ministry had not made the
announcement.

Told that Biti had announced far- reaching reforms in
the mining sector, Mupazviriho said: “The issue has not been raised by the
Ministry of Mines, so you have to go back to the minister who raised
that.”

RTG
breaks deadlock on directors’ appointments

BY NDAMU SANDURAINBOW Tourism Group (RTG) shareholders have
reached common ground on the appointment of the directors and the new-look
board holds its inaugural meeting on Tuesday.The board meeting comes
after months of haggling among shareholders, after Nicholas van
Hoogstraten’s nominees did not garner enough votes at a stormy meeting of
shareholders last year.

Financial advisory firm, Corporate
Excellence, brokered the meeting.

Corporate Excellence was tasked
last year with reaching out to the shareholders and fostering a common
understanding after shareholders had intensified their fight for the control
of RTG, the country’s largest hospitality group by market
capitalisation.

In written responses, van Hoogstraten said the
National Social Security Authority (NSSA) and the Hamilton Group (his family
vehicle) had agreed to appoint three directors each on the
board.

He said appointment of the new CEO and finance director were
matters for the board.

Van Hoogstraten would be represented by
Shingirai Chibanguza, Ian Haruperi and EFE Securities boss, Edgeton Tsanga,
on the RTG board. Haruperi and Chibanguza failed to garner enough votes to
sit on the board during last year’s AGM.

NSSA general manager,
James Matiza, told Standardbusiness the parties were yet to reach common
ground but confirmed the meeting.

“Corporate Excellence is panel
beating the appointments. They have been in touch with us and Mr van
Hoogstraten. We have not yet finalised on our side and hope that by Tuesday,
our nominees would have been finalised,” Matiza said.

However,
Standardbusiness was told that NSSA had already nominated Joseph Kanyekanye,
Shadreck Vera and Rosa Dube.

Chingwena said
there were positive developments happening, adding that he could not say
much as he was bound by ethics to not reveal dealings with his
clients.

The new board comes after the resignation of the old
board, led by Econet executive, Tracy Mpofu.

Mpofu was one of the
directors representing Econet alongside Chris Chirairo and John Gould, but
was asked to stay put on the board to allow shareholders to reach
consensus.

Econet eventually pulled out its nominees on the board.
The remaining directors also resigned, meaning RTG was operating without a
board of directors.The previous board had drawn the ire of van
Hoogstraten after the hospitality group’s money was locked in the then
ReNaissance Merchant Bank, following the placement of the institution under
curatorship last year. At an AGM last year, van Hoogstraten said the money
“shouldn’t be with Mickey Mouse people in the first place”.

RTG
started accessing the money in March after the bank was removed from
curatorship, following NSSA’s acquisition of controlling
shareholding.The convening of the board means shareholders can raise money
to recapitalise the hospitality group.

RTG requires US$15
million, which would be raised through the sale of one of its properties for
US$10 million and the remainder, from existing shareholders.

RTG
has been a theatre of fights as shareholders flex muscles at the detriment
of the group, which is failing to capitalise on the stable political
environment to grow its business.

Other than looking for money from
shareholders, the group is disposing of non-core assets.

In
August last year, the group announced that it was disposing of its interest
in non-core assets such as Touch the Wild Private Limited, Hathanay
Investments Private Limited and Zimbabwe Mauritius Tours and Travel Private
Limited, trading as Tourism Services Zimbabwe.

‘Austerity
measures need political backing’

BY
NDAMU SANDUFINANCE minister Tendai Biti’s proposal for the country to go
back to basics and swallow the medicine of austerity cannot happen without
political will from the leadership, analysts warned last week.

In
his Mid-Term Fiscal Policy review, Biti announced austerity measures that
included a chop in revenue projections, freeze on recruitments and reforms
in the mining sector to raise more revenue.

He said the
reforms, if implemented, would move the economy from a winter of despair
into a summer of recovery.

While lauding the measures, analysts said
without the backing of political leadership, the reforms would not fly,
moreso, in an inclusive government where decisions are aligned to political
inclinations.

Biti announced a cut of revenue to US$3,4 billion due
to the underperformance of diamonds among others.

In the 2012
budget, diamonds revenue was projected to contribute US$600 million. In the
six months to June, revenue from diamonds was US$146 million.

Yet
there is a paradox. Diamond production has been revised upwards to 12
million carats from the nine million carats earlier projected. “If revenue
has been revised downwards, how come production is on the increase? It’s a
black hole,” an economist with an international bank said on
Thursday.

Analysts say inasmuch as Treasury can assign the Zimbabwe
Revenue Authority (Zimra) to be aggressive in revenue collection, it has to
be mindful that the tax collector can reach a certain
point.

“Zimra is trying as hard as possible to collect revenue, but
revenue is a function of economic activity and there are certain
limitations,” an analyst said, adding that the country had to look outwards
for salvation in the form of foreign direct investment
(FDI).

Biti acknowledged Zimra’s constraints saying: “One of the
things that we fear is that it is possible that our revenuehad now reached a
plateau, so whatever you do, unless you are able to expand the economy by
attracting further income, you have got a problem.”

Biti also
proposed a freeze on recruitments saying such a move would only take place
with the blessings from Treasury and Public Service Commission.Analysts are
wary that Biti would be by-passed in new recruitments. On Wednesday, Biti
said government had recruited 9 000 employees on the first half of the year
notwithstanding the freeze on recruitments.

In 2009, Biti announced
that government had set aside US$6 million to pay off account holders. The
process was not done amid revelations some accounts had allegedly fattened
overnight in preparation for the “windfall”.

This means that there is
no good news to account holders, the majority of them pensioners, who have
been waiting for the resolution of the case since 2009. Biti provided new
investors with relief saying they are exempted from complying with the 51%
rule of indigenisation to lure foreign investors.Since the gazetting of the
regulations governing empowerment, prospective investors are
sceptical.

While Biti said it was government policy to exempt new
investors, analysts say enforcing it would not be easy as the nation gears
for elections.Indigenisation has been Zanu PF’s trump card and analysts say
only gullible investors would buy the ruse.

“Which investor would
pour money into a country that does not respect agreements? Essar tried it
and government is now shifting goal posts. Biti said it is government policy
but the question is how many policies have been adhered to? Zero,” the
analyst said.

Essar snapped up a controlling shareholding in Zisco
last year.

However, government is now insisting the Indian firm
should have 49% to conform to the empowerment
legislation.

Biti blames lack of policy
implementation

Biti blamed the slow pace of reforms as inhibiting
the growth of the economy.

“Important decisions and policies have
been taken by cabinet but implementation has been zero. The economy, thus,
continues to be weighed down by lack of reform and lack of leadership,” he
said.

Yet the minister himself had not adhered to policies set. Three
years after the country embraced multi-currencies, the issue of Zimbabwean
dollar balances has not been resolved.

Power
cuts hit mobile operators

BY MOSES
CHIBAYAMOBILE operators say the use of generators to run base stations
during power cuts had increased operational costs, affecting their profit
margins.The country is experiencing debilitating power cuts as demand has
outstripped the generation capacity. The power utility is generating 1 100MW
against the required 2 200MW.

Giving oral evidence before the
Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Media, Information and Communication
Technology last week, Econet CEO, Douglas Mboweni, said the US$0,20c per
minute tariff offered was arrived at after factoring in all the costs
involved. Mboweni said the major cost that was driving their tariff up was
fuel, used to run generators.

“Electricity is a huge cost to us, the
cost of generators and the cost of refilling is estimated at over US$15
million per year,” Mboweni said.

The Econet boss said about 72% of
the network at any given time would be running on generators.

In
a separate presentation interview before the same committee, Telecel chief
executive officer, Francis Mawindi, concurred with Mboweni and also bemoaned
electricity woes as the major barrier.

SA
stalling regional integration: Mushonga

BY NQABA MATSHAZISOUTH Africa has been accused of frustrating
plans to create a regional customs union and instead preferring to bolster
the South African Customs Union (Sacu), where it holds sway.A customs
union is a trade agreement by which a group of countries charge a common set
of tariffs to the rest of the world, while granting free trade among
members.

Regional Integration minister, Priscilla
Misihairabwi-Mushonga, said there was a feeling that South Africa wanted to
use Sacu as its basis to form a regional customs union, instead of working
towards creating a new one.

“What we see is that South Africa wants
to use Sacu as the basis for forming a regional customs union and sometimes,
this is viewed as having a big brother mentality,” she
said.

Misihairabwi-Mushonga said, for this reason, negotiations
towards a holistic Sadc customs union had not gone very
far.

Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland and South Africa make up
Sacu, with the four countries having benefited by aligning themselves to
South Africa, Africa’s largest economy. A Sadc customs union would involve
the 15 countries of the region, instead of Sacu, which is considered
narrow.

But Catherine Grant, the head of economic diplomacy at the
South African Institute of International Affairs, reckons the smaller
nations in Sacu, like Lesotho, may be opposed to Sacu morphing into a
regional customs union.

“This will be opposed by other Sacu members,
not necessarily just South Africa, as this (Sacu) is not just a trade
agreement, but involves a broader range of economic issues,” she
said.

“Up to 60% of the Lesotho budget is Sacu revenue, so the vested
issues, whether Sacu is the basis of a customs union, are not just South
African.”Grant felt that it was impossible to expand Sacu in its current
form, as it would cost South Africa too much and would dilute the resources
that were meant for other projects.

The head of the trade and
policy think-tank said instead, South Africa preferred to see the
implementation of a free trade area (FTA) as a first step, since customs
union negotiations were usually lengthy and time-consuming.

“The
preference is to first channel scarce resources to existing commitments and
trying to make them as beneficial as possible,” she explained.

Grant
said while South Africa was the dominant player in the region, hence
engendering a feeling that it was imposing itself as the big brother, the
country was actually holding back from taking a leading role and this cost
the region.

“Sometimes South Africa holds back because they are
conscious of not being a big brother and that could be detrimental to the
region,” she explained.However, Grant said energies should be directed
towards the conclusion of negotiations to set up the Tripartite Free Trade
Area (TFTA), which includes the Common Market for East and Southern Africa,
the East African Community and Sadc.

“The TFTA will resolve some
of the overlapping issues that can be difficult to solve when it comes to a
customs union,” she said.

Since Zimbabwe adopted multicurrencies in
2009, there has been a call that the nation either join Sacu or push for the
formation of a regional customs union.

Zimbabwe remains wary of
joining Sacu, as it fears for its economic independence, yet negotiations
for a regional customs union are moving at a snail’s pace.

Sacu
was established in 1910, making it the world’s oldest customs union. It
consists of Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland.